Slashgeo

All Points Blog informs us the Open Geospatial Consortium as signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Open Grid Forum: "The initial goals of the collaboration include: * Integrate OGC's OpenGIS Web Processing Service (WPS) Specification with a range of "back-end" processing environments to enable large-scale processing. [...] * Integration of WPS with workflow management tools. [...] * Integration of OGC federated catalogs/data repositories with grid data movement tools. OGF’s GridFTP is one possibility that supports secure, third-party transfers that are useful when moving data from a repository to a remote service." Here's the Open Grid Forum website. See also this previous story on a geospatial grid project in Germany.

VectorOne runs two perspectives wondering if you think GIS as we know it will “disappear” into the cloud? From Jeff: "The Cloud is fertile ground for a GIS. A GIS is about much more than location alone. Its truest value and highest potential are exposed through the capability to perform spatial analysis, model and simulate. In a sense GIS is a 5-speed F1 racer that has been operating in second gear. The cloud has enormous potential to change that, shifting spatial gears and accelerating the wider use of GIS functionality. Buckle up - the ride is about to begin." From Matt: "Predominantly geospatial capabilities are purchased by organizations, and by companies of such a size and complexity that they feel they must control these systems, particularly when they’re of a critical nature to operations and/or contain proprietary information that must be kept from competitors. I also wonder how long performance, security and reliable accessibility issues will exist for Internet-based applications."

In my numerous emails to catch up, I had the OGC newsletter with an article on the GeoCloud: "Given that the cloud computing platform and SaaS together are very similar (identical?) in their requirements for access to services and geospatial content, my belief is that OGC standards have the same value and provide the same benefits for the cloud as they do for the Grid community. It is only a matter of time before OGC standards are an integral component of the cloud." The ENTCHEV blog also offers several links to software that now supports cloud for geospatial applications. Spatially Adjusted also adds information. See also pertinent related stories below.